NISSAN has been awarded top honours at the second annual Carbuyer & Alphr Car Tech Awards for its role in the innovation and growth of the electric vehicle segment.

Nissan received the ‘Innovation in Electric Vehicles’ Award not just for its all-electric models, but also for its work in developing EV infrastructure and driving wider improvements across the EV industry.

The Car Tech Awards judging panel commented; “Electric vehicles are more in the public’s conscious than ever before and no mainstream manufacturer is doing more to grow the market and infrastructure than Nissan. The winner of our Innovation in EVs award not only builds the world’s best-selling electric car, but its wider thinking is remarkable. It’s planning a 20% increase in outdoor charging points in Europe, readying the second-generation Nissan LEAF and, perhaps most interestingly, working on bi-directional charging, a clever system allowing LEAF owners to draw power from the grid to charge their car and sell power back to the grid at peak times for others to use.”

Alex Smith, managing director, Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd. added; “Since 2010, Nissan has led the charge for mass-market, electric vehicle adoption. We’ve proved the technology to consumers, supported charging infrastructure development and evolved EVs beyond transport into energy storage and connected services. With the second-generation Nissan LEAF arriving in 2018, we’re seeing unprecedented interest in our all-electric line-up. This is a very exciting time for the EV market.”

This latest recognition follows the newly unveiled new Nissan LEAF already being presented with a CES Best of Innovation award for Vehicle Intelligence and Self-Driving Technology and CES honouree for Tech for a Better World at the Consumer Electronics Show’s Best of Innovation awards.

Now in its second year, the Car Tech Awards is a celebration of the best in-car technology launched over the past 12 months, judged by experts from Carbuyer and Alphr. From driving assistance systems to safety innovations, the awards seek to deliver advice to car buyers on both technological advances and driver ‘must haves’: reliability, value for money and practicality.

In October, Nissan unveiled the all-new Nissan LEAF in Europe, the next generation of the best-selling zero-emissions electric vehicle. Embodying Nissan’s Intelligent Mobility vision, the new model has been reinvented to offer greater range (up to 235miles (NEDC) on a single charge), dynamic design, advanced driver assistance technologies and enhanced connectivity.

A unique version is on sale now in the UK – the new Nissan LEAF 2.ZERO limited edition. This version is the first model in Europe to be fully equipped with Nissan’s ProPILOT technology. Priced at £26,490 including Government Grant, cars will be delivered from the beginning of 2018.